Field of the Invention
Floating barriers, known generally as oil booms, have been found to have great utility in containing and controlling oil slicks on bodies of water. The barriers usually include flotation elements having a depending liquid impervious skirt which, when deployed around or in a controlling position relative to oil floating on water, provide means to contain or prevent the oil from spreading or moving into areas protected by the barrier.
Present art barriers generally utilize a solid material as the flotation medium since gas inflatable flotation elements are susceptible to puncture and/or deflation in the environment to which the barriers are normally subjected. However, solid material containing booms have drawbacks in that they require a great amount of storage and transportation space and the greater difficulty in manipulating the barrier during deployment, positioning and retrieval. Furthermore, because a solid flotation element will have a larger moment of inertia than an inflated flotation element of equivalent size, the solid floatation element is more resistant to movement and therefore less able to follow wave motion without slop over and, further, due to the lower freeboard of solid floatation elements oil containment is less effective.